It's been a while since Netflix shared any big news about One Piece season 2. Earlier this year, we learned One Piece season 2 would premiere in 2025, but since then, there's been a relatively quiet stretch regarding Netflix's live-action adaptation of the incredibly popular manga by Eiichiro Oda. Until now.
Over the last few days, there's been a flurry of information about One Piece season 2 and a possible third season. As it turns out, not everything turned out to be true.
According to a report from ComicBook.com, Brashaad Mayweather, who played Patty in One Piece season 1, revealed that production on One Piece season 2 AND season 3 was starting this summer in a recent interview on What's Popping! with Bruce Crossey. This would be huge news because Netflix has not confirmed the production schedule for season 2, but Netflix also has not even commented at all about One Piece season 3.
Here's what Mayweather mentioned about the new seasons schedule, via ComicBook.com:
"We'll see if they flashback to it because they're filming two seasons, season 2 and 3, back to back starting soon."
What's on Netflix reported that Netflix claimed Mayweather's comments were "not accurate at this time." Then, Mayweather clarified his comments on X (formerly Twitter).
THIS IS NOT OFFICIAL. WHO'S TO SAY IM EVEN IN PART 2🤦🏿♂️
— Brashaad Mayweather (@MayweatherLive) June 3, 2024
This isn't the first time we've heard that One Piece season 2 is starting production soon, likely in June 2024. Again, Netflix has not confirmed the start of filming, but it's a good sign that there's been a few rumors and others commenting about production starting soon.
On Sept. 14, Netflix announced that the live-action series had been renewed for a second season. This renewal comes only two weeks after the first season’s premiere. In a special video, creator and illustrator of theOne Piecemanga series Eiichiro Oda shared the great news of the show’s renewal.
Here are some of the impressive feats the show has managed to reach as of this week via the Netflix press release.
- One Pieceis the No. 1 title globally on Netflix with 37.8 million views amassed in less than two weeks since its release. The live-action series reached the Top 10 in 93 countries and debuted at No. 1 in 46.
- The first season is Certified Fresh with a 96% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes from 10,000+ ratings, making it among Netflix’s highest audiences scores ever.
- It’s become a social media sensation with more than 4 billion search impressions for #onepiecenetflix on TikTok alone. The show continues to generate buzz and trend globally across social platforms. The cast Instagram followings have soared, adding millions of followers over the last couple of months.
Renewal status: Renewed for a second season
As mentioned, One Piece season 3 has not been officially ordered, but there's a chance that we could see the renewal in the near future. It makes a lot of sense to film seasons back to back, especially since we know that there are plans for up to 12 seasons of the show.
One Piece executive producers Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements spoke with Deadline in September 2023 and said that they have “hopes for 12 seasons."
Here's what Clements said:
"We’re over 1,080 chapters at this point in the manga. We have plans with Matt Owens for how we would break multiple seasons, and I think even if we did six seasons, we would probably only use up half of the chapters of the manga. It really could go on and on and on."
If they do a season every 18 months, we're looking at 20 years of One Piece. Is that realistic? No.
One Piece season 2 rumored to start in June 2024
According to What's on Netflix, principal photography on the second season will reportedly begin in mid-June 2024. The news outlet shared where it discovered this information which was through a Production Weekly Issue posted in March 2024. The issue to be exact is Issue 1393. According to the listing, filming will take place once again in South Africa. However, it also notes that filming will take place in Spain and Mexico as well. But keep in mind that these filming locations have not been locked down and confirmed. However, it's pretty much a given that production will take place in South Africa again. It's the Spain and Mexico locations that we're unsure of.
The cameras are rumored to continue rolling for at least seven months on the second season before the episodes move to the post-production phase. This is a similar production schedule to the first season which took six months and 22 days to film. Honestly, it's the editing process that's going to take a lengthy time because of all the special effects and stuff. That being said, we can pretty much count out on a 2025 release.
As mentioned above, the highly anticipated second season will not be coming out in 2024 like we had hoped but instead in 2025. According to Deadline, the reason for the delay was because of the writers and actors strikes, but we already knew the possibility of the new season coming in 2024 was low. I mean, the writers were still hard at work writing the scripts at the end of 2023.
But now that we have a rumored filming start date and production schedule, we have an idea of when the new season could be released in 2025. Our guess is that we're looking at a summer 2025 release at the earliest, but a fall 2025 release is more likely. A fall release would give the new episodes enough time to be edited perfection in post-production.
You have to also factor in that Netflix has huge shows reportedly coming in 2025. Stranger Things season 5 will premiere in 2025, along with Wednesday season 2. Those are two of the biggest shows of all time. Depending on how Netflix chooses to roll out its biggest shows, One Piece season 2 could be affected. We'll just have to wait and see, but we're thinking it will be at least
Release prediction: Summer or Fall 2025
One Piece season 1 ending
After Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates defeat Arlong and his pirate crew at Arlong Park, they set sail on the Going Merry to the Grand Line in search of the One Piece. Luffy now has the highest bounty in the East Blue ($30,000,000 berry) putting him and his crew in great danger.
The last scene of the first season shows a mysterious man burning Luffy’s wanted poster. If you read the manga series or watched the anime, you’d know who this character is. It’s none other than Smoker, a powerful Marine captain. It looks like Luffy and his crew will be meeting Smoker very soon. This can’t be good…
Netflix nor the creative team behind One Piecehave revealed what the second season will be about. However, our guess is that it’ll cover the Loguetown Arc (the sixth and last story of the East Blue Saga) and the Arabasta Saga, the second saga of the manga. Once we know for sure what One Piece season 2 will be about, and which parts of the manga it’ll cover, we’ll be sure to let you know right away.
Owens tells Deadline that the “challenge of leadership” is a really big theme for the second season.
Who could be in the second season?
The official season 2 cast list has not been revealed. However, we have an idea of who could return. Since the show revolves around Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates, we’ll most likely see the return of the actors portraying those characters. And if the second season does cover the Loguetown Arc, we can expect to see the return of season 1 antagonists Buggy the Clown and Alvida as well.
The show’s co-creator Matt Owens pretty much confirmed in an interview with Deadline that Smoker will be in the upcoming second season. He said, “That character in the end [Smoker] is a very important character moving into our next season.” He continues on and says, “And we’re going to see this very powerful, very driven marine as a major antagonist moving forward in the story.”
Lastly, we can expect to see new characters like Doctor Kureha and Tony Tony Chopper. In the manga and anime, Doctor Kureha is an elderly doctor who works on Drum Island. Owens told Deadline that Doctor Kureha is a “character who is coming up in our story.” When it comes to Tony Tony Chopper, he eventually joins the Straw Hat Pirates and becomes the doctor of the crew in the manga and anime.
Here’s who we believe could return inOne Pieceseason 2:
- Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy
- Mackenyu as Roronoa Zoro
- Emily Rudd as Nami
- Jacob Romero as Usopp
- Taz Skylar as Sanji
- Ilia Isorelýs Paulino as Alvida
- Jeff Ward as Buggy the Clown
- Vincent Regan as Vice Admiral Garp
- Morgan Davies as Koby
- Aidan Scott as Helmeppo
- Steven Ward as Dracule Mihawk
- Peter GadiotasShanks
- Stevel Marc as Yasopp
- Smoker – The actor has not been cast yet, according to Owens.
Also, make sure to check out our article on the characters who probably won’t be back in One Piece season 2.
Steven Maeda, who helped develop the live-action series and showrun the first season, is believed to have given up his showrunning duties for the upcoming second season. However, he will remain as an executive producer on season 2. Matt Owens, who co-developed and ran the first season with Maeda, is set to return as showrunner of the second season. He'll also be executive producing again for season 2. Joining him with showrunning duties this season is Joe Tracz. Tracz is also signed on as an executive producer for season 2. His most recent work was on the hit Disney+ fantasy series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, where he wrote two episodes.
An official episode count has not been revealed yet. But our guess is that we’re looking at another eight episodes for the second season. Netflix shows are typically given the same amount of episodes for each season. Sometimes the episode count could increase or decrease, but that doesn’t usually happen. We’ll share the official episode count once Netflix reveals it.
Jamie Lee Curtis could be playing Doctor Kureha in One Piece season 2
After the show’s renewal, fans began to dream cast who they want to see play the new characters in the upcoming second season. Their main pick for the Doctor Kureha character was Academy Award-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis. Now, it looks like Curtis is in agreeance.
On Sept. 22, Jamie Lee Curtis expressed her support in taking on the role of Doctor Kureha in the live-action series through an Instagram post. The caption to the post reads, “ONCE the STRIKE against the greed of the AMTPT is SETTLED with a FAIR CONTRACT, I will lobby along with the growing fan frenzy to become Doctor Kureha in @onepiecenetflix.”
Well, it looks like fans and Curtis’s wish might be coming true because the show’s showrunner Matt Owens just gave his approval. He wrote in the comment section of Curtis’s post, “Mommy dearest, that’s why we sent you that figure! No need to lobby. Once we get what we deserve and get back to work let’s talk!”
Owens tells Deadline that there haven’t been any “real conversations” but that he’s ready to sit down and talk with Curtis about casting her for the role.
Fingers crossed, everything goes well and we have our new Doctor Kureha.
Stay tuned to Netflix Life for more news and coverage onOne Pieceseason 2!
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